PRESIDENT TUDJMAN GIVES INTERVIEW TO CROATIAN TELEVISION - PART 1

ZAGREB, June 24 (Hina) - Croatian President and president of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Franjo Tudjman, gave an interview to Croatian Television on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the party. In the speech, Tudjman recalled the most important events in Croatia's recent history and the times before the creation of the sovereign state of Croatia. The interview with President Tudjman will be aired in a two-part series. The first part was aired by the Croatian Television on Wednesday night, in which Tudjman spoke about the beginnings of democratic transformation and the circumstances ahead of the first free multi-party elections. The second part of the interview will be broadcast on Thursday night. The policy of reconciliation, the creation of the HDZ as a general people's party which adopted all positive facets of Croatian political ideas, ensured us success both in the domestic and international areas, Tudjman said. However, a part of the people cannot reconcile themselves with this, they remain with their previous standpoints and jeopardise not only this policy, but also the stability of Croatia in the political, economical and international sense. From this vantage point of non-reconcilliation, failure to accept historic results we have achieved, these people are creating illusions that there was a possibility that a different Croatia could have been created, a Croatia which could return to some Balkan south European frameworks -- and this is something the Croatian people cannot accept, Tudjman stressed. During the interview, the television showed numerous features on Tudjman's interviews from the 80's to the Swedish and German televisions, for which he was sentenced to prison; surveillance films the secret police of the former Yugoslavia (UDBA) made while following Tudjman and his family. Aired too, were films featuring the then communist leaders expressing their stances about the creation of the HDZ, footage of the First HDZ Assembly, and a party assembly in Benkovac in 1990, at which Tudjman avoided assassination. "The world is heading towards globalisation, but this global integration does not exist in a positive progressive sense unless all peoples, even the small peoples, do not have their place in the international order," Tudjman said when asked to comment on stances he had made in his books. He reiterated the significance of the creation of the independent and free Croatian state, and HDZ's crucial role in this. He recalled international powers had, through history, including recent history, always opposed the creation of an independent Croatian state, and that not even in the end of the 80's, not one party besides the HDZ had not had in its programme the creation of an independent state of Croatia. Tudjman stressed the importance of the policy of reconciliation of the Croatian people at home and abroad, and the reconciliation of the divided Croatian people during World War II and after it. It is indisputable that this reconciliation was our starting point from which we could create the independent Croatia, and it is understandable that this will continue to be important for our development, Tudjman said. At the time of the establishment of the Croatian Democratic Union, the then political leaders called it a neo-Ustashi party, a party of dangerous intentions, extremists and so on. Asked to comment on the fact that a part of the current media are making such assessments, Tudjman said it was a misunderstanding of the policy of reconciliation which helped create Croatia's freedom and independence. Illustrating contradictions in the Croatian population, Tudjman said some Croatians, failing to understand the complexity of Croatia's history, are in wonder why the bust of Cardinal Stepinac and of Josip Broz Tito are among other busts in front of the Presidential Palace. Croatian Josip Broz Tito ruled the communist Yugoslavia from World War II until his death in 1980. Cardinal Stepinac, head of the Catholic Church in Croatia during WWII, beatified last year, was framed and convicted of treason and collaboration with the Ustashi regime during Tito's Yugoslavia. Tito was a complex personality and, notwithstanding what anyone thinks of him, he was also a Croatian politician, Tudjman said. Tito crushed the monarchist Yugoslavia which was a dungeon for the Croatian people, and created legal frames for the independence of Croatia in the socialist Yugoslavia. However, he did not accomplish independence for the Croatian people, and is also responsible for everything communism in WWII and after it brought on, Tudjman said. He is also responsible for the victims of Bleiburg, although documents do exist that Tito himself did not issue the order for the mass killing of Croatian soldiers and civilians in Bleiburg and after it in 1945, Tudjman stressed. Had there not been an anti-fascist movement and Tito, who was famous and respected in the non-aligned world, we would not have had a Croatia, Tudjman said. Some people fail to understand that every people are children of their history from which they cannot escape, as can no man from his youth, Tudjman stressed. He also commented on his personal experiences with Tito. He did not have many personal contacts with him, but when the Croatian Central Committee in 1965 wished to oust Tudjman from the public scene, Tito said: "Leave Tudjman alone, he is the only one resisting the greater-Serbian hegemony". When both the Croatian and Belgrade communist authorities jailed me and wished to sentence me to 15 to 20 years in prison for alleged espionage, Tito said in 1972 "Don't frame Tudjman". This is how I remained alive, Tudjman said. (hina) lml jn